


Ethics Questions

by vega_voices



Series: Come Rain, Come Shine [30]
Category: Murphy Brown (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 17:28:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16748443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vega_voices/pseuds/vega_voices
Summary: This was something they were both still adapting to and there were moments he knew she still struggled with her independence and need to prove she could do it all herself.





	Ethics Questions

**Title:** Ethics Questions  
**Author:** vegawriters  
**Fandom:** Murphy Brown  
**Series:** Come Rain, Come Shine  
**Pairing:** Murphy Brown/Peter Hunt  
**Rating:** Mature  
**Timeframe:** Brown vs. The Board of Education (season 7)  
**A/N:** Personal note, I’m not a huge fan of the title of this one. The show has always liked messing with names and titles of things as a tip of the hat to popular culture, but this is very much a moment in time and Murphy’s pushing to get Avery into what is bound to be a mostly white private school just feels a tad too white feminist for me. And I suspect that was the overarching point and meant to highlight Murphy’s own blind spots, but I feel like it didn’t work. As for the ethics lessons? And Murphy wanting the best for Avery in all possible worlds? The episode is spot on. As for me … I needed something cute and light and fluffy. So here.  
**Disclaimer:** Nope. Not a cent. Not a single, solitary cent. Not mine. Never will be. Just over here in my sandbox.

 **Summary:** _This was something they were both still adapting to and there were moments he knew she still struggled with her independence and need to prove she could do it all herself._

Peter wasn’t sure what sight made him feel more at home - Murphy standing at the gate, or Avery running up through the crowd of people to be lifted up and hugged. A task Peter happily indulged in. “You grew two inches in month!” He teased the little boy. Avery just giggled.

Murphy sighed into the kiss as they came together and Peter slipped his free arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Behind him, he heard someone gasp “That’s Murphy Brown and Peter Hunt!” but he didn’t care. Spending time away from these two was getting harder and harder and if a few strangers got to watch him kiss her hello, he was fine with it.

“Ew! Mommy!” Avery pushed at her. Peter and Murphy broke apart, laughing.

“How was the flight?” Murphy asked, a laugh playing at her lips. They fell into step together, her hand in his, Avery still on his hip, and if his backpack was a bit unruly to manage, Peter didn’t care.

“Bumpy. But hey, they didn’t run out of ginger ale before they got to me.”

She chuckled. “So how did the story go?”

“Well, if I told you that, I’d have to kill you.” Peter grinned. He was working on a piece about the Russian Mafia’s influence in American political movements. It was one he’d had to sell Now and Tomorrow on. After all, the Cold War was over and everyone was playing nice. But Peter’s gut told him this was something to be talked about now and if they didn’t, they’d all be regretting it later. “What about FYI? What are you working on?”

“Nope. Tit for tat around here,” she taunted. But there was something about her tone that made him want to dig. She was upset about something.

“Details?”

She glanced at Avery, who was listening to the adults as he tended to do, and shook her head. “Later. I figured we’d go back to your place? We can order something and you can sleep in your own bed? I’ve got clothes for work there and Eldin can --”

“I can watch Avery tomorrow,” Peter cut her off. “Well, at least drop him off in the morning before I go in. I do have that seat in my car and everything now.”

He didn’t miss the look in her eyes. This was something they were both still adapting to and there were moments he knew she still struggled with her independence and need to prove she could do it all herself. “Avery, do you want to spend the morning with Peter?” She asked.

“Yes!” He cheered.

Peter shook his head and squeezed Murphy’s hand. “It’s good to be home,” he murmured.

“It’s good to have you home.”

Avery fell asleep on the drive back, bored with the adults conversations about work. In the apartment, Murphy settled him in his bed and called for dinner while Peter showered and by the time he emerged into the living room, dressed only in a pair of drawstring lounge pants, she had also changed. Peter took in the sight of his girlfriend lounging on his couch in one of his longer shirts and nothing else and thanked God that whatever they were doing together was working.

“How long til dinner is here?” He asked, stalking toward her. Could he hold out until dinner showed up?

“Twenty minutes … which really means half an hour,” she teased. “Why? You have something in mind?”

He knelt before her and ran his hand up the inside of her leg. “Yes.”

That made her laugh and she wrapped one hand around his neck and pulled him into a kiss that ended only when he was settled between her legs. His lips didn’t remain idle and while she pushed at his pants, freeing him, he made work of his favorite spot on her neck. If he did his job right, she’d need a scarf tomorrow.

“Peter …” Murphy moaned as he kicked the pants down his legs.

He pulled back, looking at her, and she pulled a small foil package from somewhere on the floor. “Probably a good idea …” Peter smiled and Murphy sat up just enough to do the honors. He sank into her, groaning as her leg hooked up over his hip. “I missed you,” he whispered as he thrust, slowly. “Every damn night …” he leaned in, his mouth next to her ear as he moved inside of her. “I’d picture you walking in, sliding between the sheets next to me …” she arched her back and pushed against him. “My hand is a poor substitute …” again, a thrust. Slow. Careful.

From the moment he laid eyes on her, he’d known the sex could be amazing. But he’d never expected to feel this way. And as she adjusted just slightly under him, giving space for her own hand to join at the juncture of their bodies, he lost himself in the moment until he came, calling her name as he tumbled over the edge. Really, his hand was a poor substitute.

She kept him inside of her until she came, gasping, and his mouth again found her neck while she rode out the tremors of her body.

“Shit …” she moaned as he finally pulled out and carefully peeled off the condom to toss in the trash next to the couch. “I’m really glad you’re home.”

Peter took in the image of her half naked, legs splayed open as she caught her breath, and couldn’t agree more. Carefully, he pulled his pants back up and leaned back on the couch to catch his breath while Murphy vanished into the bathroom. The door buzzed as she emerged and Peter rose to take care of it. He wasn’t letting some pimple faced delivery kid see his lover in her current state.

“All right,” Peter said as he handed over Murphy’s predictable pasta carbonara, “what happened while I was gone?”

She shrugged and bit into the bread. “Work, work, work, and work.”

That tone was back in her voice. The one that told him something was wrong and she was stewing just enough to talk about it but needed some pushing. A lot of people said Murphy was difficult to read. Those people didn’t actually pay attention to who she was and how she communicated. It wasn’t hard to get her talking about what was going on under the surface, but you had to approach her without judgement. He’d learned quickly it was that sense of being put on trial that set her defenses rising. “What’s that story you mentioned FYI was doing?”

She sighed and got up to get them both ginger ales from the fridge. “I’m making a choice that could seriously damage Avery’s educational opportunities and it bothers me.”

“How does that relate to the story?” Peter popped a meatball into his mouth and leaned back, taking the soda from Murphy.

“I’m taking a long, hard look at admissions boards on private schools. Not just the competition to get in, but the bribery that comes from parents, the expected tit for tat from the board.”

“Avery didn’t get into Lucky Ducky did he?”

Murphy almost laughed. Almost. “Ducky Lucky, if you care.” They both smiled. “And no. But even if he had, I wouldn’t have been able to let him go. Not after the disaster that happened.”

Peter waited for her to sort out her thoughts.

“So yes, I tried to get Avery into Lucky Ducky,” they shared a look at her turning the name around. “And honest to god, Peter, I just expected it to be an application. Maybe an interview where I show off how well he can point out Newt Gingrich and color on his face. But god … the competition. For a preschool. Parents had letters from the Clintons and there were seminars you could go to just to learn how to fill out the application properly. Miles had me so turned around, talking about how a school like Ducky Lucky would send him straight to Harvard and I just got thinking …” She got up and paced over to the bedroom, peeking in. “Avery deserves everything I didn’t have as a kid. Stability. Parents who give a damn. I mean, just because your parents are doing okay financially doesn’t mean they care about you. I need him to know how much I love him.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “You’ve given him that.” He hoped she understood that he was including himself in this conversation.

“I want it to be perfect, Peter. Perfect.” She turned away from the bedroom and closed the door again. “The perfect schools, perfect holidays, perfect path for his life. I want him to have the best. So much so that I forgot, really, that the best just … usually comes with a cost to morality and ethics.”

“Let me guess,” he said, setting his pasta aside. “Knowing you, you got wrapped up in the competition with the other parents.” He was a competitive guy, he understood the need to be number one. She made him look like he’d never tried for anything a day in his life.

“The caviar at the party was a tad salty …” her face betrayed her.

Peter chuckled. “What else happened?”

She sighed and came back to the couch. “It was a wonderful party, Peter. I actually wish you could have been there. People were charmed. I was charming. But here is the thing … and it didn’t even hit me until after it was all over. But ... no one even cared that Avery was upstairs asleep. This party, this school, it wasn’t about him. It isn’t about him. It was about the chance for us parents to all walk around and think we were so important. It wasn’t about the kids and you know what, the school isn’t for the kids. The board members couldn’t stop talking about the party the Kennedys threw and somewhere in the middle of it all, Avery woke up and Corky brought him downstairs …” she picked at a piece of her now cold spaghetti. “And none of them cared. I was holding my son in my arms, the little boy they are deciding on, and they didn’t care that he was awake. The party woke him up and he wanted his blanket and none of the adults cared. It got me thinking how would they react if that happened at school, you know. But what was worse …” She took a bite of the pasta, wrinkled her nose, and got up to put it in the fridge. She came back and curled up next to him. Peter slipped an arm around her, trailing his fingers up and down her arm. “What was the worst part was that one of the board members assured me Avery would be getting in and it was because Frank had dropped a story on the guy’s construction firm.”

Peter felt the blood drain a bit. “Shit …”

“See, Frank just couldn’t confirm the source. But the timing was crap. My KGB piece was strong, so we focused on that and …”

“But he thought …”

“And then there I was, faced with this reality that I’d done all of this and it wasn’t for Avery at all. Maybe it was for me and my need to prove that even though I work 80 hours a week and my nanny sees my son more than I do, that I’m a good parent. At least I can give him the best.”

“Murphy …”

“And everyone there … it’s like we are this special members only club of people who work 100 hours a week to give our kids the best rather than actually spend time with them.” She looked at him. “And after all of that, he still wasn’t accepted. Which is not on him. It isn’t about his potential, it’s about his mother. Come on, how long before I’m doing exposes on all of the board? And they know it. So, because of me, he’s been excluded.”

Peter laughed. “So you’re just going after them anyway?”

“No. It’s a commentary on the culture of it all.” She smiled. “I mean, Frank was finally able to confirm his source.”

“Nice.” He squeezed her and dropped a kiss to her hair. “And you know you’re a great mom, right? Avery knows you love him.”

“Yeah, but am I giving him every opportunity possible?”

“Yes.” Peter met her eyes. “You know that not all opportunities that present themselves are worthy of the chance. I mean, how many interviews have you turned down despite the opportunity.”

“That …” she tapped his chest, “is very smart.”

“Wow,” he grinned. “That’s as close as you’ve ever come to saying I’m right.”

Murphy barked out a laugh and poked at his abdomen. “That never leaves this room.”

“I wish I’d been recording. You want to try again? I’ll get my tape recorder out.”

“Stop,” she leaned up and moved to straddle him. “What will it take to get you to forget that.”

“Oh, you can do whatever you like, Ms. Brown. I’ll still remember that you pretty much said I was right. In a conversation about your son, no less.”

That earned him a sharp poke in the ribs. But she also kissed him, so it was worth the trade off. Peter pulled her in for a deeper kiss, weighing the consequences of picking her up and moving to the bed - he had just been on a plane for ten hours and his back was acting up. With a groan, he broke the kiss and nudged her off his lap. “I want to be the king of romance tonight, but you’re just going to have to drag me toward a flat surface.”

“You can sleep, you know,” she laughed, climbing off of him. “I got mine. I’m good.”

Peter pushed himself to his feet and slapped her ass. “I see how it works around here. Just a hot, younger piece of meat?”

“Getting older and tastier by the minute,” she teased right back.

Peter pulled her back into his arms, always amazed at how perfectly she molded against him. He really could get used to coming home to this forever.

“Come on,” Murphy whispered, pulling away but taking his hand. She dimmed the lights and he followed her into the bedroom.

***

Murphy woke to a familiar feeling. She opened one gritty eye to see her son standing at the side of the bed, pulling on the blanket. She groaned, checked the clock, groaned again, and sat up. At least he’d slept most of the night. “Hey, kiddo,” she mumbled, glad she’d had the foresight to put Peter’s shirt back on before passing out. He was probably still naked.

“I’m hungry,” Avery whined.

“Me too,” Murphy said, rubbing her eyes. “Let’s go see if Peter has pop tarts.”

Avery giggled and ran out of the room. Murphy slipped from bed and walked to her drawer, pulling out a pair of leggings. She tugged them on and tried to get her hair under control.

“Cupboard by the fridge,” Peter mumbled out.

Murphy laughed. “Thanks.”

She joined her son in the kitchen, where he was glaring at the empty refrigerator. “Nothing here!”

“Well,” Murphy said, lifting him up to the booster seat at the table, “that’s because Peter has been gone and food goes bad.” She opened the cupboard next to the fridge to discover her preferred strawberry with icing pop tarts next to a box of s'mores ones. She opened a package of each and handed Avery half of a pop tart and a glass of water.

She sat down and watched her son chew on his breakfast. “Hey, Avery?”

“Yes, Mommy?”

“You know how a couple of times a week you go to school with Miss Mary and Miss Katina and get to play with all your friends?” Avery nodded excitedly. “Well, as you get older, you get to go to school every day. And Mommy was looking at a new school for you. One where you’d get to learn all kinds of cool things.”

Avery frowned. “Bud my friends!”

Murphy stared at his blue eyes, suddenly full of terror that he wouldn’t see Lily or Bobby or Miss Katina anymore and she realized he didn’t need to go anywhere. The JCC was fine. He was learning the skills he needed and he had friends and the teachers were wonderful and it was giving him a connection to his father that he didn’t even know he needed. If she could send him into kindergarten with a basic understanding of Jake’s faith, the ability to be kind, and understand his numbers and letters and colors, she was doing just fine.

“How about this,” she said with a smile, brushing crumbs from his cheeks, “why don’t we go up to five days a week? I will go to work and you can go to school.”

“Every day?!”

“Every day,” she smiled. “You can play with Lily and Miss Katina every day.”

Avery bounced in his chair. Murphy took that for a yes.

“Okay, well tomorrow I’ll take you to school and I’ll talk to them about it. It will probably start in September.” She handed him another small bite of pop tart. “But today, you’re gonna hang out with Peter in the morning cause I have to go to work. He’ll take you home to Eldin.”

“Mommy?”

“Yes, baby?”

“I like Peter.” He kicked his legs a bit.

Murphy sighed and stroked his hair gently. “I do too, baby. I really do too.”

Movement caught her eye and she looked over to see Peter emerge from the bedroom, looking just a bit sheepish. So, he’d heard her. Okay. Well, it was true. She did like him. She liked the cut of his jaw and the way his eyes twinkled and how when he came up behind her, his hands always rested on her hips.

This was bad. They hadn’t had a serious fight yet, Avery loved him, and he made her a better journalist. They even managed to split the morning paper without snapping at each other. At some point the other shoe had to drop, right?

“I’ll make coffee,” he murmured into her neck before ruffling Avery’s hair. “And I’m sorry I don’t have juice for you, bud.” Peter reached down to the table, stole one of the pop tarts and walked over to the coffee maker.

“It’s otay!” Avery was covered in crumbs. Murphy was too, and she brushed off her t-shirt.

“I’m going to leave you two boys to eat,” she teased. “I need to go shower.”

“Bye, Mommy!”

Showered, dressed, the basics of makeup applied from her emergency bag in her purse, Murphy wrapped a scarf around her neck, slipped her feet into heels that almost matched her outfit and let Peter press her against the front door for a kiss goodbye.

“Ew, Mommy!”

Murphy laughed and pushed Peter back. “The child has spoken.”

“Someday, you’re not gonna mind so much,” Peter called over his shoulder to Avery before kissing Murphy again. She sighed.

“Stop. I’ll be late.”

He winked at her. “I’ll see you later.”

Murphy turned and headed out the door. She had a story to finish and Avery was in very good hands.

***

He could tell from how she closed the front door that her feet hurt. Peter got to his feet and walked into the foyer, taking in the set of her shoulders, the look on her face, and he knew it had been a battle to not make a “stop” on the way home. She frowned at him and glanced upstairs.

“I told Eldin to go. I could work here tonight. Don’t worry, the kid is down for the count and even clean and fresh smelling.”

“What part of heaven did you fall from?” She asked as she dropped her bag to the floor and kicked off her shoes. “Thank you.”

“Go change,” he ordered, gently, nodding to the stairs. “I’ll clean up my notes.”

She pressed her hand to his chest and then moved up the stairs, sans shoes. Peter returned to the couch, fully expecting her to not come back down. More than once he’d gone up after her to find her passed out on the bed, half dressed. But ten minutes later he turned around to see her leaning against the entertainment center in a pair of silk green pjs and a white t-shirt, her hair tied back in a low ponytail. She smiled and walked to him and didn’t push him away when his hands moved around her waist and he lost himself in the feel of her lips against his.

Whatever stress she’d been feeling when she came through the door seemed to have been washed away by cold water on her face and a change of clothes. He groaned as she nudged him backward and when she slid onto his lap, he knew any questions he had about how her day had gone would come after his libido had been sated. Would he ever not want to rip her clothes off?

Any concept of conversation was lost as his hands moved up under her shirt, cupping her breasts. She ground against him and he realized he should have just followed her up the stairs a few minutes ago. Right now, Murphy was not interested in conversation. She didn’t care about how either of their day went - which meant for her it had been fantastic or terrible and judging from the way she’d walked in the door, it had been terrible. She just wanted to fuck. Hard and fast and it wasn’t long before he had her under him on the couch, her hips lifted to meet him, her biting the pillow to keep from waking Avery. She groaned into her climax and he held his breath, holding out for just a moment longer before thrusting one last time and collapsing in top of her in a heap.

“Why’d you bother getting dressed?” He teased.

“Just in case you turned me down.”

“Never …” he pressed their hips together one last time before completely pulling from her body. “I don’t think it is possible for me to look at you and not want to make love to you.”

“Not sure what we just did there was making love,” she smirked as she rolled over.

The after effects of sex were never what the romance novels claimed. At least, not when sex was had on the living room couch and a hyper three year old could make his appearance at any moment. But for the mess of disposing of the condom where Avery wouldn’t stumble onto it, and flipping the couch cushion, and finding their clothes, Peter loved knowing that she was willing just about anywhere.

Murphy emerged from the kitchen with a plate of cold pizza and a far more relaxed position to her shoulders. Peter stole a piece from her, ignored her glaring at him, and waited until she’d set the plate down and wasn’t likely to use it as a weapon.

“So? How was work?”

She glared at him. Peter raised an eyebrow.

“I’m going to piss off a lot of people …”

“Babe, you got into it with Dan Quayle. I think you can handle these snits.”

She sighed. “The Vice President was easy. His position of power had nothing to do with whether or not rich snobs like myself are able to educate their children.”

“This is really bothering you …”

She pressed her fingers to her eyes. “You’re just figuring this out?”

“Murphy …”

“I just. I can’t stop thinking about what happens when he gets into school. How many times is he going to have to defend himself for something I did? I mean, this isn’t like I’m a politician who screwed over millions of Americans. I’m a journalist who just put someone’s mom in jail or ruined someone’s family corporation. I’m going to be ruining the lives of his friends.”

Peter let the comment sit. She wasn’t wrong. But there wasn’t any easy answer either.

“And I’m going to do this story and these people are going to see it and they sit on other admissions boards. What if this kind of thing impacts him long term?”

“Do you really think people will remember in a couple of years?”

She looked at him sideways. “Something tells me I’m going to be hearing about that caviar at Avery’s college graduation.”

Peter reached over and squeezed her hand. “And something tells me that you two are going to navigate this world just fine.”

The look in her eyes was hard to understand, and it made his stomach swirl in ways he wasn’t used to. But, this conversation was about more than just Avery’s preschool education and they both knew it. This was about the future - their future.

“Mommy?!”

Avery’s little voice started both of them and Murphy chuckled and stood up, squeezing Peter’s hand as she did so. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here,” Peter responded, a smile crossing his face.

“How about the library?” She shrugged. “I think we both have work to do.”

She was right. Peter nodded. “I’ll see you in there.”

He watched her walk up the stairs and tried to calm the butterflies in his stomach. Almost a year ago, he’d sat on this couch with her, talking about how lousy they both were in relationships. Since then, she’d nursed him back from a broken leg, they’d survived Frank’s so called practical joke that landed him in an interrogation room with the secret service. He’d found an apartment with space for all of them, taken a job that kept him in DC more and more, and every single day they just came closer and closer.

She wasn’t the only one worried about Avery’s future after all.


End file.
